Do you like what you just read?

Father Tom: what's the big fuss about marriage?

Father Tom Bartolomeo of Spero News, in one of his regular videos, spoke to the difference between civil marriage and the Catholic Sacrament of Matrimony. He was responding to a query sent to him by a viewer who expressed frustration about not being allowed to be married in the Catholic faith.

The viewer wrote that he and his fiancée have been cohabiting for two years. They both attend Mass and receive Holy Communion. When they approached a priest to solemnize their union in the sacrament, they were refused. The person who wrote in said that he is upset and wants to be married in the Catholic faith nonetheless. Living apart, he wrote, would be too expensive.

Father Tom said that while he has sympathy for those who come to him to discuss their plans for a Catholic marriage, he stressed that it takes time and commitment. Regarding the viewer’s question, Father Tom said “In the question there is a great deal of ignorance, even though I’m not saying the person is ignorant. He simply doesn’t know his faith.”

A Catholic marriage requires preparation and commitment, said Father Tom, in contrast to civil marriage which requires very little. Preparation for the Sacrament of Matrimony can take as long as a year, he said, and a minimum of six months’ notice. “You might say, ‘What’s all the fuss about?’ The fuss is dealing with the most important thing, generally speaking, in a man and a woman’s life.”

Father Tom has produced several such videos on topics ranging from same-sex marriage to the authority of the papacy.